bibliography * The PainScience Bibliography contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers and others sources, like a specialized blog. This page is about a single scientific paper in the bibliography, Shi 2010.

original abstract†Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.

Cigarette smoke, which serves as a nicotine delivery vehicle in humans, produces profound changes in physiology. Experimental studies suggest that nicotine has analgesic properties. However, epidemiologic evidence shows that smoking is a risk factor for chronic pain. The complex relationship between smoking and pain not only is of scientific interest, but also has clinical relevance in the practice of anesthesiology and pain medicine. This review will examine current knowledge regarding how acute and chronic exposure to nicotine and cigarette smoke affects acute and chronic painful conditions. It will cover the relevant pharmacology of nicotine and other ligands at the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor as related to pain, explore the association of cigarette smoking with chronic painful conditions and potential mechanisms to explain this association, and examine clinical implications for the care of smokers with pain.